ILLUSTRATED:

When appreciating Taiwanese painter Liao Chi-chun's work, art historians typically reserve the greatest praise for his use of colour, dubbing him the 'Magician of Colours'. Some fellow artists have asserted that Liao's palette is a grand hoax that fails to be true to 'natural colours' in the long and venerable tradition of Chinese painting, adhering to the aesthetic principles of Fauvism and expressionism instead. There can be no doubt that Liao's colouring is highly subjective, but it is just as certain that he is a master at matching and harmonizing multitudes of different hues and shades. At the same time, he frees himself from the constraints of conventional styles to create original shapes and forms that evoke a pleasant response in the sympathetic observer.

Speaking of his application of colour and form, Liao once said, 'I use simple, bright and strong colours in contrasting arrangements to produce richer chromatic effects. In my lines and patterns, I'm always searching for what's interesting and appealing. My paintings are not about "accurately" reflecting a single moment's impressions - they are all about expressing the colours and combinations of colours I wish to express.' (Please refer to "The Rainbow Across the Gap Between Generations - Liao Chi-chun's artistic life" by Lin Hsing-yueh, Cathay Art Museum, Taipei, Published on March, 1981, pp. 230-231)

His innate sense of color then veered into a new direction as ever more dazzling and lively hues, cheerful as the budding flowers of springtime, moved into the foreground of his artistic output. Liao developed a particular adeptness at boldly blending and contrasting brilliant colours that convey the unique atmosphere of subtropical sceneries: unrestrained yet mellow and agreeable. Ever since the 1950s, when he had produced a large number of paintings and sketches showing the panoramas of Taipei's Tamshui area, Liao had been very fond of depicting mountains and water, especially river and harbour scenes.

Returning to Taiwan from his travels and studies in Europe and the US, which had greatly widened his horizons, the artist embarked on a new era in his work during the sixties. Having absorbed the trends of abstractionism in the United States and imbued himself with European culture and civilization, Liao reached the peak of his skill between 1960 and 1970. He had been particularly impressed by the views afforded him in Venice, the brilliant colours of the skies and waterways, the hustle and bustle of gondolas on the city's many channels, and the relaxed and free atmosphere conducive to artistic inspiration. Turning his experiences into fresh creative momentum, Liao quickly established his own style and method to paint the vistas closest to his heart. No matter if it is Taipei's Tamshui, Kaohsiung's Love River, Italy's Venice, North Taiwan's Yehliu or the last station of his life, Tungkang in Southeast Taiwan, all these places, famous for their seaside and river panoramas, come alive with the artist's sparkling colours and dynamic patterns. Liao's later works, including for example Yehliu, show a mature palette and poised style in the service of calm reflections on a long and full life. We can feel how the artist's soul at long last leaves mundane reality behind and returns to the essence of things. Consequently, his latest representations of reality transcend the limitations of conflicting national, geographic or cultural qualities and identities to reach out for the joint core of all the different sceneries and mental imageries accumulated over a lifetime.

This piece from 1953 titled Tamshui is one of Liao's 'early classics', giving a sweeping view from the hill across Tamshui with its landmark white building and the local church near the bottom right of the painting. Both the white building and the church are European- s tyl e structures, while the residential houses perched along the foot of the mountain are in the traditional Fujian style, interspersed with some Japanese buildings - a typical cross-section of the area's architectural diversity and a reflection of its eventful history.